Expectedly, Nigeria\u2019s Ademola Lookman scooped the Africa Player of the Year award at the 2024 CAF Awards in Marrakech, Morocco on Monday night, less than 33 months after winning his first cap for Nigeria at international level.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old won the FIFA U17 World Cup with England before committing his future to Nigeria, and helped steer the Super Eagles to the runner-up position at the 34th<\/sup>\u00a0Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cote d\u2019Ivoire earlier this year. Also, he was key to Italian side Atalanta FC winning the UEFA Europa Cup last season, and this year, has scored 11 goals and notched five assists for the same club in 18 games across all competitions.<\/p>\n Lookman\u2019s triumph was the big cake for Nigeria following goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie\u2019s retention of the Goalkeeper of the Year award, and the Super Falcons again winning the Women\u2019s National Team of the Year award as they did last year.<\/p>\n President of Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau, MON and Nigeria\u2019s FIFA Council Member, Mr. Amaju Pinnick, OFR were among the distinguished guests at the Palais des Congr\u00e9s, as FIFA President Gianni Infantino and CAF President Patrice Motsepe handed the glittering marble to effervescent forward Lookman.<\/p>\n Pinnick was particularly joyous. As President of NFF, he made several attempts to get the player to commit to fatherland before the forward capitulated, and eventually won his first cap in the 2022 FIFA World Cup final round, first leg clash with Ghana\u2019s Black Stars in Kumasi on 25th<\/sup>\u00a0March 2022, which ended scoreless.<\/p>\n Gusau, who collected the Women\u2019s National Team of the Year award on behalf of the Falcons, dedicated the prize to Nigeria\u2019s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, and pledged that his administration will continue to support women\u2019s football in all its ramifications.<\/p>\n Nigeria\u2019s five-time Olympian and Olympic bronze-medallist Mary Onyali, former Nigeria international striker Obafemi Martins and 1996 Olympic women\u2019s long jump gold winner Chioma Ajunwa-Oparah were among the stars of the night as they presented awards.<\/p>\n Four Super Falcons, namely Michelle Alozie, Osinachi Ohale, Rasheedat Ajibade and Asisat Oshoala made the CAF Best 11 Women for 2024, while last year\u2019s Player of the Year winner Victor Osimhen and new King Lookman made the Best 11 Men roster.<\/p>\n THE AWARD WINNERS:<\/strong><\/p>\n Men\u2019s Player of the Year:\u00a0<\/strong>Ademola Lookman (Nigeria)<\/p>\n Women\u2019s Player of the Year<\/strong>\u00a0Barbra Banda (Zambia)<\/p>\n Men\u2019s Coach of the Year:<\/strong>\u00a0Emerse Fa\u00e9 (C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire)<\/p>\n Women\u2019s Coach of the Year:\u00a0<\/strong>Lamia Boumehdi (TP Mazembe; Moroccan)<\/p>\n Men\u2019s Goalkeeper of the Year:\u00a0<\/strong>Ronwen Williams (South Africa)<\/p>\n Women\u2019s Goalkeeper of the Year<\/strong>: Chiamaka Nnadozie (Nigeria)<\/p>\n Men\u2019s Interclub Player of the Year:\u00a0<\/strong>Ronwen Williams (Mamelodi Sundowns\/South Africa)<\/p>\n Women\u2019s Interclub Player of the Year:\u00a0<\/strong>San\u00e2a Mssoudy (AS FAR\/Morocco)<\/p>\n Men\u2019s Young Player of the Year:\u00a0<\/strong>Lamine Camara (Senegal)<\/p>\n Women\u2019s Young Player of the Year<\/strong>: Doha El Madani (AS FAR\/Morocco)<\/p>\n Men\u2019s National Team of the Year<\/strong>: C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire<\/p>\n Women\u2019s National Team of the Year<\/strong>\u00a0Super Falcons of Nigeria<\/p>\n Men\u2019s Club of the Year:\u00a0<\/strong>Al Ahly (Egypt)<\/p>\n Women\u2019s Club of the Year<\/strong>\u00a0TP Mazembe (DR Congo)<\/p>\n Goal of the Year:\u00a0<\/strong>Mabululu (Goal for Angola against Namibia)<\/p>\n Best Referee (Women):<\/strong>\u00a0Bouchra Karboubi (Morocco)<\/p>\n Best Referee (Men):<\/strong>\u00a0Elvis Guy Nguegoue (Cameroon)<\/p>\n Best 11 Women<\/strong>: Andile Dlamini; Michelle Alozie; Karabo Dhlamini; Osinachi Ohale; Lebohang Ramalepe; Linda Motlhalo; Rasheedat Ajibade; Ghizlane Chebbak; Barbra Banda; Asisat Oshoala; Tabitha Chawingwa<\/p>\n Best 11 Men<\/strong>: Andre Onana; Achraf Hakimi; Khalidou Koulibaly; Chancel Mbemba; Mohammed Kudus; Sofyan Amrabat; Franck Kessie; Yves Bissouma; Mohamed Salah; Victor Osimhen; Ademola Lookman<\/p>\n Outstanding Achievement Award<\/strong>: President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi (Egypt) and; President Paul Biya (Cameroon)<\/p>\n \u25cf Source: thenff.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Expectedly, Nigeria\u2019s Ademola Lookman scooped the Africa Player of the Year award at the 2024 CAF Awards in Marrakech, Morocco on Monday night, less than 33 months after winning his first cap for Nigeria at international level. The 27-year-old won the FIFA U17 World Cup with England before committing his future to Nigeria, and helped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":92398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6317,5778],"tags":[6889,376,938],"class_list":["post-92396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","category-sports","tag-ademola","tag-africa","tag-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/92398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}